Tom Riddle's Journey Through Hogwarts
by Emily Wonders
Summary: Dumbledore once said that Tom Riddle had never known love. What happens if this was untrue? What if Tom Riddle grew up with another magical child? How would this of changed him? This story is Kathryn Winters and Tom Riddle's journey through Hogwarts. Dumbledore and light bashing. Eventual Tom Riddle/OC


**Tom Riddle's Journey Through Hogwarts**

**Dumbledore once said that Tom Riddle had never known love. What happens if this was untrue? What if Tom Riddle grew up with another magical child? How would this of changed him? This story is Kathryn Winters and Tom Riddle's journey through Hogwarts. Dumbledore and light bashing.**

**Disclaimer: I don't not own Harry Potter. Unfortunately. It is written but J. . This chapter follows the chapter in the half blood prince (The sixth harry potter book) called The Secret Riddle. Enjoy. **

Professor A. Dumbledore was strolling along the street, his auburn hair flowing behind him while each long stride covered the distance he was walking, each step taking him closer the orphanage. The plum, velvet suit he was wearing was drawing the attention of curious passer-bys while the odd witch or wizard that passed him shook their head, Dumbledore was clearly on the borderline between wizard and muggle wear.

The stares, though put Dumbledore in the spotlight, didn't make him feel uncomfortable. He was the centre of attention which was just the way he liked it. Dumbledore was the first thing that popped up in the pedestrians minds causing them to look at him and subtly make him feel in control. Dumbledore controlled these whispers, he controlled their thoughts and that was just the way Dumbledore liked it.

The professor was making his way down towards the run down place musing how fortunate it was that Dippet had 'allowed' him to make this visit. There were two magical signatures emitting from the orphanage both entwined with each other making the owners very powerful. Personally if he was the headmaster he would have made this visit. Such young potential to be moulded into such a weapon.

When Dumbledore finally entered the bare courtyard, he faced a squared building with high railings. Painted completely grey it gave off the appearance of a prison and in a way Dumbledore considered, it was. He mounted the steps with practised ease giving off the appearance off one who walked up many steps. Once he got to the door he knocked once. After several minutes the door was opened by a scruffy young girl who was wearing an apron.

Her poor mind could barely process Dumbledore's appearance the vibrant plum colour suit contrasting with the grey, worn-out buildings. Dumbledore let her mind stay focused on him for a while before interrupting her thoughts. "Good afternoon. I have an appointment with a Mrs Cole, who I believe in the matron here?"  
"Oh," said the girl, her mind still focused on Dumbledore, normally he would encourage it but he was anxious to meet the owners of the magical signatures. Sighing he entered her mind softly and nudged it towards letting him in and taking her mind off his eccentric appearance. "Um…just a mo'…MRS COLE!" She bellowed over her should.

Distant shouting answered back, the words they formed lost in the echoey hallways. The girl turned to Dumbledore and continued her staring. Dumbledore sighed then entered her mind once more. He quietly murmured the words of _come in she's on her way._ The girl shuddered once as if leaving her trance. "Come in, she's on 'er way," Dumbledore allowed himself a brief smile of achievement, not that controlling her mind was really hard. The poor muggle had no defences but still it went undetected by the ministry, who of course thought all of this activity was illegal.

The hallway was tiled in black and white and while it was spotless, it was old and shabby. An overworked and tired women hurried towards him, her thin bones sticking out and she had a sharp-featured face. She looked rather anxious as she didn't spare Dumbledore a look as she spat out instructions over her shoulder to the apron helpers behind her. _Well, _thought Dumbledore, _we'll have to fix that._ Once again he entered a muggle's mind and jerked her head towards him forcing her to stare at him.

Dumbledore attire had the desired effect on the matron. As she gaped at him, he merely held out his hand. "Good afternoon."  
Mrs Cole continued to stare.  
"My name is Albus Dumbledore. I sent you a letter requesting an appointment and you very kindly invited me here today."

Mrs Cole could only blink, while Dumbledore smirked. She blinked again the decided that Dumbledore was not a hallucination, a side-effect of all the gin she drank. "Oh, yes. Well-well then- you'd better come into my room. Yes."

She led Dumbledore into a room that looked like a cross between a sitting room and an office. It was out-dated, small and shabby. The furniture was mismatched and old. Mrs Cole invited Dumbledore to sit down and he did so trying to hide his distain at such disgusting furniture. She eyed Dumbledore nervously and he couldn't help feel a slight rush of power that he was able to make someone feel nervous.

"I am here," Dumbledore said smoothly, "as I told you in my letter, to discuss Tom Riddle and Kathryn Winters and the arrangements for their future."  
"Are you family? To either of them?" Mrs Cole asked eagerly.  
"No, I am a teacher," came the reply, Mrs Cole's face fell rapidly, "I have come to offer both Kathryn and Tom a place at my school."  
"What school's this, then?"  
"It is called Hogwarts,"  
"And how come you're interested in the children?"  
"I believe that they both have qualities that we are looking for."  
"You mean they've won a scholarship? How could they of done? Well Kathryn maybe…But Tom has never been entered for one."  
"His name has been down for our school since his birth-"  
"Who registered him? His parents?" Dumbledore groaned, Mrs Cole was sharp…too sharp…he braced himself before entering her mind again then decided against it. After all there was a lot subtler ways of getting her to open up.

Dumbledore produced a blank piece of paper, wishing that it was the so called psychic paper that a man called the doctor once produced. Oh well this will do. As he slid the paper across he waved his wand. Mrs Cole's eyes glazed over as Dumbledore began speaking to her.  
"Here, I think this will make everything in clear." Mrs Cole's eyes suddenly snapped back into focus as she gazed intently at the paper.  
"That seems perfectly in order," she said, handing it back. As her eyes travelled upwards from the paper to Dumbledore's face her eyes caught a bottle of gin. Of course Dumbledore has just conjured it up, after all as much as he wanted to meet the owners of the magical signatures; it is also about seizing the opportunities.

"Er-may I offer you a glass of gin?" she asked in an extra-refined voice.  
"Thank you very much," Came Dumbledore's reply. Waiting for Mrs Cole to drown several glasses he then began to speak. "I was wondering whether you could tell me anything of Tom Riddle's history? I believe he was born here in the orphanage? Or Kathryn's history of course…" He tacked on quickly. After all Tom was the boy so he was bound to have a lot stronger magic and was probably the source of such a strong signature. But he needed to keep up appearances. Besides it was better to know more than less, after all knowledge is power.

Mrs Cole needed no more prompting, "That's right, he was born here," Mrs Cole said, as she poured herself more gin, "I remember it as clear as anything, because I'd just started here myself. New Year's Eve and bitter cold snowing, you know. Nasty Night. And this girl, not much older than I was at the time, came staggering up the front steps. Well she wasn't the first. We took her in and she had the baby within the hour. And she was dead in another hour." Mrs Cole nodded impressively and took another gulp of gin, "And of course there's Kathryn. Inseparable those two," Dumbledore, guessed it wasn't really a surprised that the two magical children in an orphanage stuck together.  
"She was left a year later. Don't know her left 'er, she was just dumped on the doorstep like luggage, not like that's a new thing. Had two letters with her though, one addressed to the girl, Kathryn Winters, to be opened on the 30th of July, 1938. That's tomorrow…" She trailed off thoughtfully.

Dumbledore looked at the women besides him and saw curiosity in her nature, "and you didn't look at the letter?" He enquired.  
"Well, that's the thing we tried, we all did but it just wouldn't open for any of us, and I gave Kathryn the letter a couple of years ago and she couldn't open it either," Dumbledore groaned, it was obvious that the parents or parent of Kathryn was a pureblood, to put a spell on a something so it could only be opened by a certain person an a certain day was blood magic. The thing was about blood magic, if you didn't know the exact spell used, it was impossible to break… Dumbledore sighed, he guessed he wouldn't be looking at that letter before Kathryn.  
"And what of the other letter?" He asked,  
"It said nothing really, just that her name was Kathryn- which we already worked out of course, and that she was born on the 20th of December, that was the date of the winter solstice**(AN: Not sure if this is actually the date but lets play lets pretend and say that it is, savy?) **… Oh and that she needed a healer, not a doctor, a healer, strange isn't it? Made me think that her parent could have been foreign." Dumbledore, sensing that Mrs Cole had no more to offer on Kathryn Winters urged her to move onto Tom Riddle's Histroy.

After Mrs Cole had moved on from telling Dumbledore about how Tom was named and the fact his middle name was Marvolo (funny name isn't it? We wondered if the mother had come from a circus) Dumbledore had managed to work out that Tom's mother was a witch, after all Marvolo was quite a common wizard name and that his father was a muggle, you don't get more muggle then Riddle.

Mrs Cole paused for breath, and helped herself to more gin, two pink spots had appeared high on her cheek-bones. "He's a funny boy," she said.  
"Yes, I thought he might be," It was hard to harness your magical powers in a muggle environment and not stand out in front of muggles.  
"He was a funny baby, too. Hardly ever cried you know. Then when we placed Kathryn with him a year later in the same cot, we were running out of space, he never made a sound until he was learning to talk. But I guess Kathryn's always been like that, able to calm Tom down. And when he got a little older, he was…odd."  
Finally, Dumbledore thought, we are getting somewhere.  
"Odd, in what way?" He asked gently.  
"Well, he-" she pulled up short, "He's definitely got a place at your school, you say?"  
"Definitely," Came the reply  
"You'll be taking him away, whatever?"  
"Whatever," Dumbledore repeated forcing his voice to stay calm and not show any of his irradiation. Mrs Cole squinted at Dumbledore before deciding he was trust worthy. In a rush, so that she couldn't take back her words she blurted out, "He scares the other children."  
Once again Dumbledore thought they were finally getting somewhere, "You mean he's a bully?" He asked.  
"I think he must be," Said Mrs Cole, frowning slightly, "But it's very hard to catch him at it. There have been incidents…nasty thing…" At this Dumbledore's attention reached peak point, it was easy to mould someone who already had hatred instilled in them.

"Billy Stubb's rabbit…well, Tom _said _he didn't do it and I don't see how he could have done it, but even so, it didn't hang itself from the rafters, did it?"  
"I shouldn't think so, no."  
"But I'm jiggered if I know how he got up there to it. All I know is he and Billy argued the day before. Billy had pushed Kathryn down the stairs and Tom was mad that Billy didn't get punished. He's very protective of Kathryn see," Excellent thought Dumbledore, has a lot of hatred in him, with an obvious weakness. "And then," Mrs Cole ploughed on, listing other incidents that had happened. Dumbledore's mind was whirring, thinking of ways to mould Tom Riddle into a perfect weapon while telling Mrs Cole that both Kathryn and Tom would have to be returning every summer. After Mrs Cole assured Dumbledore that was okay she led him to Kathryn and Tom's room.

"Here we are," Said Mrs Cole, as they turned off the second landing and stopped outside the first door in a long corridor. The names Tom and Kat were written on a placed, and stuck on the door, it was obviously done by a child with drawings of snakes, flowers, cats, and other wildlife you would see outside decorated the boarder. Mrs Cole knocked twice then entered, "Tom, Kathryn? Just you Tom, I'll go and find Kathryn, anyway you have a visitor. This is Dumberton – sorry Dunderbore. He's come to tell you- well, I'll let him do it." Mrs Cole closed the door while Dumbledore's eyes swept around the room. It was a small bare room which was painted grey, nothing was in it apart from two old wardrobes and two iron bed sets. Drawings done by the same person who had drawn the plac littered one bed while a tall boy sat cross legged on top of the other one, holding a book.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he took in Dumbledore's eccentric appearance before smoothing into an emotionless face. Dumbledore felt slight annoyance at this as the appearance was meant to make Tom feel awe at him. Deciding he needed to make the first step to show who was in charge, Dumbledore walked forwards and offered his hand. "How do you do, Tom?" For a second Dumbledore thought Tom was going to shame him and leave his hand hanging but his suspicions was soon halted as Tom shook the hand.

"I am Professor Dumbledore," Dumbledore made the announcement in such a way it should have made Tom feel slightly ashamed that he had heard of Professor Dumbledore, after all that's how it usually worked.  
"Professor?" Repeated Riddle. He looked wary. "Is that like 'doctor'? What are you here for? Did _she _get you in to have a look at me?" This isn't that way it's meant to be going, Dumbledore thought frantically. Deciding to try and sway his mind a bit Dumbledore tried to entered it. To his astonishment he was blocked. A boy with no apparent occlumency training was able to block him! Of course he could force his way in but that would make Tom aware of the intrusion and he would be unlikely to be able to trust Dumbledore after that. Shrugging he decided just to go for the old grandfather look to try and persuade Riddle to trust him.  
"No, no," said Dumbledore smiling.  
I don't believe you," Said Riddle. "She wants me looked at doesn't she. Tell the truth!" The last three words were spoken with such a ringing force. It was a command that had been spoken many times before and increased the tension in the room massively. Suddenly the door opened and a girl with long wavy hair walked in. Humming a slight tune to herself she glanced around the room, seeing the confrontation. Tom was standing up and glowering down at Dumbledore while Dumbledore was continuing to smile pleasantly increasing Tom's anger. Slowly the girl took in the scene her eyes widening gradually, before putting down the flower she was holding softly on the bed. Walking to stand beside Tom she quietly tapped his shoulder, "Tom?" She asked, "What's going on?"**  
**


End file.
